Camping in Lofoten – the price of nature’s delights

“Look at me, what is there not to envy?!” – I could almost hear the sarcastic voice inside my head, as I looked around my nightly accommodation. I was grateful that Couch is more spacious than he looks from the outside and for the fogged up front windscreen that was now providing me much welcomed privacy, alongside the two towels that I managed to attach to the sides. My drying undies on the gearshift added an almost a homely touch. Smirk.

The things is, we are adaptable – or – extremely stupid people with good luck. Often its hard to make the distinction. We were forced to either become lacking-equipment-campers for the first time above the Arctic Circle or pay more than our daily budget on the cheapest cabins around.  Campers we are!

For the first time we found a campground where the lovely owner lent us blankets and a pot to cook our two minute noodles in. There was also the elderly German couple who helped us put the tent up and lent us a mat for one of the children to sleep on. We survived quite comfortably.

Armed with false confidence the second night we were not that lucky. We braved the Arctic night with whatever we found in our backpacks. So dressed to the rim, covered in the sheets we “permanently borrowed” (long story) from a hospital and two adults on one blow up mattress and three children on another…we froze our butts off.

The next day we equipped ourselves with cheap fleece blankets in the store in town and I sacrificed myself to be doomed to spend the night in the car so the kids don’t have to be squished on one mattress. And this is how I found myself watching Seven Samurai without a hope of finishing it, because the battery of my laptop lasts an hour or so,  amidst the microfiber towels I hate so much and my drying undies (thankfully the nice lacy ones, phew).

This is the reality of the poor traveler in Norway – a country that has gotten delirious from the height of its prices. After all there is no oxygen up there, so nothing surprising really. We will freeze above the Arctic Circle, avoid the taxi worthy fares of the public transport, eat from the back of the car without even dreaming about buying a meal – kebabs are $15-20 for goodness sake. We will do all that because the plot of land that the Norwegians have managed to keep for themselves is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen.

And  Lofoten islands delivered it all – the deep blue waters that are so clear you can barely see where they start, the rolling hills, the mossy greens, the bridges covered in the low white clouds and even the patches of fog to drive through for a much needed visual rest.